GH: What Mac Scorpio Should Do Now…

I could tell you how much I hate the mob storylines – again… but you know that if you’ve read this blog even once… OR, I could tell you about a storyline I’d love to see happen for our dear Mac Scorpio – who has to face yet another daughter marrying into/getting involved with the mob circle.

My dream storyline would have to be, of course, something that takes us far outside of the mob boy’s storyline, while still feeding TPTB’s apparent need for vice. Any viewer watching for longer than a decade remembers that the great Mac Scorpio was once a mercenary. His past actions in the political world were as shady and low as his actions with other men’s wives (by his account and that of his brother, Robert). He’s done a lot of bad things, we were just never told what those bad things were. Mac is now a decorated hero, pillar of his community, loving father/father-uncle, and the chief peace officer in Port Chuckles. Surely that’s not sitting well with someone, somewhere. Surely he’s responsible for someone’s untimely death, or for having callously turned over an innocent man (maybe a celebrated freedom fighter) he tracked down on behalf of some vicious despot. Surely this man has a son or daughter, seeking revenge, angry that Mac’s life has gone on brilliantly and that he lives among ‘decent people’ while he/she still suffers from loss of a parent.

Let’s make the vengeance-seeker a woman – ah…so you know where this is going! What if she slowly wormed her way into Mac’s life? She could share her sob story with him: orphaned as a young adult, left alone to fend for herself in the world… surviving but desperate, doing some unsavory things to survive and often finding herself in unhelpful situations. The only thing she won’t share with him is his role in her misery. Outside of her unbridled rage, something neither Mac nor the audience would know about her as we first meet her, she would be the very definition of goodness and light. She would seem to have only Mac’s best interest at heart at all times. We wouldn’t realize, initially, that she was alienating him from the people he loved most. She’d start with Maxie. Why? Because Maxie is hooked up with the mob boys through her love for Spinelli, which makes her an easy target – low hanging fruit, if you will.

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We wouldn’t know she was out to hurt Mac so we, the audience, would applaud her. Someone other than Mac is finally telling Maxie and Spinelli there’s a choice to be made and that the options aren’t even close to being ‘similar’. They’re very different choices (Mac or the Mob) and that either could alter the course of the young couple’s future. Ellenna, we’ll call her, would remind Maxie of how important her career at Crimson is to her, of how hard she’s worked to be taken seriously. She would remind Maxie that her father is the same way. He cares deeply about his work, he cares that he does well, but he also cares to be taken seriously and can’t be, as long as she and Spinelli have chosen Jason and Sonny. What message does that send to the people of Port Charles? How much longer is Mac supposed to defend is personal integrity because of their actions and their associations with Sonny and Jason?

Maxie, in her typically obstinate manner, would chose the mob boys (she always does). They ‘accept’ her as she is. They don’t make demands on her. They aren’ t out to change her. We’ve heard it all before (and we’ll hear it, or some variation of it, again this week) Maxie will argue that Mac claims to love her, but only loves her as long as she is the person he wants her to be. She’ll deliver the ultimate low blow as she tell him that his demands for perfection even drove her mother away and left Georgie vulnerable. Having ‘been there-done that’ too many times before with Maxie, Mac does cut her out of his life this time. Maxie is devastated. Mac is devastated. Ellenna (‘Elle’) is secretly elated.

Robin is next. How does Elle alienate Robin? This one is more difficult because Robin has been the model daughter-niece. She has to be more clever with Robin: ‘unintentionally’ picking fights with her, setting Robin up so that Mac catches her unloading on a seemingly innocent Elle, making Robin uncomfortable with the way she holds Emma – think ‘Hand That Rocks The Cradle’ crazy. Robin’s inability to accept Elle after everything Mac has done for her and the fact that he’s loved her unconditionally is the final straw. Mac has supported Robin in her happiness no matter where she found it and he wants nothing to do with her if she can’t do the same for him.

He’s been on his own for so long that it feels good to finally have someone who is willing and able to put him first. He confides in Elle that he wasn’t always a good man who cared whether he was loved and needed. He confides that he’s haunted by the man he use to be, and that it’s why it’s so important for him to be a better man. He confides that he’s always felt that he was unworthy of happiness, but that he’s been grateful for every moment of it he’s ever had. He prays that he can have happiness one last time before he dies, and then has to face whatever ‘punishment’ there is for his past life. He asks Elle to marry him and they begin planning their family and their future together… but not so fast! After comparing notes, Robin and Maxie realize three things:

1- Mac has been strong for everyone else. He’s been so strong that no one put the pieces together – he’s been slowly falling apart. Mac has been suffering from depression since the day he lost Georgie – another reason is was so important to him to help Robin w ith Emma during her PPD. It gave him meaning and he could connect with Robin without having to share his ‘secret’ his ‘shame’. He’s been alone in the same house Georgie lived until she died. He’s alone with the memories of a wife who deserted their family, and a dead daughter. They start to learn things they didn’t know about Mac – that he secretly drinks at night, for example. Coleman has seen him there several nights a week passing by a neighboring bar. It’s where Mac met Elle.

2 – that they’ve both been set up… they realize that Elle wanted them both out of Mac’s life. They’re not sure why, but they know it’s not for love.

3 – Mac’s depression and that they’ve ignored him other than to lean on him when they needed him made it easy for Elle to set them up and isolate Mac.

They know that talking with Mac is useless because he doesn’t want to go back to his old life of picking up the pieces for everyone else. He’s happy again and his happiness is like a drug that leaves him wanting more. What Mac doesn’t realize is that his drug state is both literal and figurative. Elle’s original plan was to slowly drug Mac, eventually killing him – until she learned about Robin and Patrick and knew they would investigate his death. She then begins working on ‘plan b’… setting Mac up for murder. If he can’t be made to pay for her father’s murder, he should be made to pay for someone else’s. She realizes the irony of taking a life to make Mac pay for the life he took, but she rationalizes her actions by planning to take the life of someone who ‘deserves’ it -unlike her heroic father.

Unaware of Elle’s actions or plans, Robin, Patrick, and Maxie begin investigating her (better than getting them involved in every half-wit unrelated plot on this show). They rely on the help of Alexis Davis when they run across red tape in the European nation Elle claims she’s from. Alexis has a history with the European courts, both personally and professionally. Alexis helps them find out that the woman whose name is being used died over two decades before Elle began using it. They decide that it’s of little use to share this information with Mac. He would only rationalize their findings as ‘mixed up paper work’, or that she used the name to escape an oppressive life. They need more proof in finding out who this woman is. After weeks of searching, the trail grows cold. They need more help. While Robin calls her father to ask for help in picking up a warm lead, Alexis decides to get close to Mac in order to get closer to Elle. Now that she’s in private practice and he’s on leave from the PCPD for health reasons, she begins showing up at Mac’s to talk to him about several cases she’s working on, seeking input from him. Watching the dynamic between the couple, discomforted by Elle’s evasive manner whenever she’s asked about ‘home’ or her family leads Alexis to believe that Elle is a bigger threat to Mac than anyone believed.

After the full group gets together, they begin to wonder why they hadn’t thought to investigate the real ‘Elle’. Why did this woman taking control of Mac’s life, whoever she is, choose that name? They find out that the woman whose name she uses was her mother’s, which uncovers the sordid history of her father’s death and Mac’s role in it. By the time they realize what’s going on, it’s too late. Elle has chosen her victim and set her plan in motion.

In the best possible soap world outcomes, Remily (Rebecca Shaw to most fans!) would be the intended victim. Catching Ethan and Rebecca on the docks, she realizes what a horrible person Rebecca is to take advantage of Nik’s grief. Identifying with Nik, who has also lost as love one, she decides to ‘protects’ Nik by getting rid of Rebecca. She realizes that setting Mac up for murder would be difficult – he has no reason to hate Rebecca (hard to imagine, I know! Do you need a real reason to hate this character? The fact that she exists makes her cringe-worthy in my book). She decides to ‘break up’ with Mac, citing his family and their constant attacks against her as the reason.

The break up triggers Mac’s drinking, the drinking leads to a fatal accident, the accident leads to Mac being arrested, tried, and convicted of manslaughter. Wracked with guilt, he accepts his fate. It’s only after the fog clears, as he relives the episode, that he begins remembering small details, one of which is the key to unraveling what happened. He remembers Rebecca being pushed and the car not being able to stop in time. He starts to remember viewing the accident from the passenger side, it occured just as he was waking up. His memory triggers a further investigation: Robert, Anna (who returns when Robert puts out the call about a woman named ‘Ellenna’ – there’s more to her back history than even Elle knows), Robin, Patrick, Alexis, Maxie and Spinelli (who’ve given up the mob boys and are married and in the Scorpio-Drake-Spinelli clan), band together to prove Mac’s innocence.

The prove that Rebecca was pushed in front of Mac’s care… but if Elle was driving the car, who pushed Rebecca… or who drove the car as Elle pushed Rebecca… There’s more…

This storyline pulls several past storylines together: Georgie’s death, Mac and Felicia’s unresolved failed marriage, Mac’s history as a smiling, but dangerous, playboy, and the Robert-Mac history. Anna and Robert are back at the WSB – there can still be vice on the show without the lollipop mob. The difference? The bad guys aren’t the ‘heroes’. Spinelli and Maxie follow the family tradition and actually put bad guys AWAY, not save them.

Future directions: Obviously romance between Mac and Alexis once he’s cleared, conflict between Alexis and Nik – who refuses to listen to Alexis’ pleas to trust in Mac’s innocence – until later, the person who helps Elle could be Ethan – if you’d like and we could get rid of him, Robin begins to have a relationship with her parents and they begin to clear the air on past events that even the audience isn’t aware of – yet, An unknown connection between Ellenna’s family and members of Port Charles…. so many future directions.